Running at a range of intensities will develop your running fitness across the spectrum and provide benefits for events from 5k through to longer events. This is a great session for all runners and triathletes especially those running events between 5km & half marathon.
Each week I will be posting the Friday Fartlek Run Sessions that you can do to enhance your running. Fartlek is a Swedish term that is often used by runners and it means speed-play. See a previous post about training intensity (levels) to know how hard to work.
The inspiration for this post came from TempoFit’s Workout of the Week from back in February, you can read the original article here.
TempoFit’s Royal Flush
- 10min WU Level II;
- 2x 5km (Build Level III-V), 2min Level II RI;
- 10min CD Level II;
- 10min Stretching
Start the workout with a Warm Up (WU) of ten minutes of easy jogging at Level II.
The Main Set involves two reps of five kilometres. As you progress through each kilometre increase your pace. Start with the first kilometre run at marathon pace, then increase to half marathon pace for the second kilometre. The third kilometre should be run at your one-hour pace, then a ten-kilometre pace for the fourth kilometre. The final kilometre is run at five kilometre pace. Take a two-minute Rest Interval (RI) jogging at Level II before starting the second rep at your marathon pace again.
The Cool Down (CD) is at a low intensity, jogging (Level II) for a minimum of ten minutes.
Finish with 10 minutes of stretching to assist with the recovery.
Here are target paces for various 5km abilities.
| 5k Ability | Marathon | Half Mara | 1 hour/Lactate | 10k | 5k |
| 15:00 | 3:28 | 3:17 | 3:15 | 3:07 | 3:00 |
| 17:30 | 4:02 | 3:50 | 3:46 | 3:38 | 3:30 |
| 20:00 | 4:37 | 4:23 | 4:17 | 4:09 | 4:00 |
| 22:30 | 5:11 | 4:56 | 4:45 | 4:40 | 4:30 |
| 25:00 | 5:46 | 5:29 | 5:14 | 5:12 | 5:00 |
| 27:30 | 6:21 | 6:02 | 5:43 | 5:43 | 5:30 |
| 30:00 | 6:56 | 6:35 | 6:13 | 6:14 | 6:00 |
I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.
I specialise in assisting first-timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729.
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If you enjoyed this workout, here is a similar session I published.
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